In this unique and compelling anthology, Sebastian Faulks and Jorg Hensgen have collected the best fiction about war in the twentieth century. Ranging from the First World War to the Gulf War, these stories depict a soldier's experience from call-up, battle and comradeship, to leave, hospital and trauma in later life. Truly international in scope, this anthology includes stories by Erich Maria Remarque and Pat Barker, Isaac Babel and Ernest Hemingway, Heinrich Boll and Norman Mailer, JG Ballard and Tim O'Brien, Julian Barnes and Louis de Bernieres. Together they form a powerful and moving evocation of the horrors of war.

Met o.a. L.F.Celine: Could I be the last coward on earth?, Remarque, Hemingway, Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, and many others,with biographical notes.  

Neerslag van een jaar lang reizen langs plaatsen die een belangrijke rol hebben gespeeld in de geschiedenis van Europa van de twintigste eeuw.

Autobiografisch relaas van een Italiaans-joodse chemicus die Auschwitz overleefde.

Geschiedenis van een jonge Britse vrouw, die als hulpverleenster naar het door een burgeroorlog getroffen Soedan ging en daar trouwde met een beruchte warlord.

Duitsland, 1936. De Joodse Monika Merton, wier echtgenoot al is omgekomen in het concentratiekamp Dachau, is op de vlucht voor de Gestapo. Ze heeft haar woonplaats München verlaten en hoopt in Beieren de Oostenrijkse grens te kunnen oversteken. Onderweg ontmoet ze in de trein dichter Andreas von Cornides, die zich nauwelijks bewust is van het geweld en de misdrijven in Duitsland. Hij leeft, zo lijkt het, in een andere wereld. Ondanks zijn onwetendheid ontwikkelt Monika een zwak voor hem, en hij voor haar. Haar plan om te vluchten verzwijgt ze. Samen met Andreas verlaat Monika de trein in een afgelegen bergdorp, waar haar 'langlauftocht' moet beginnen. Maar door het slechte weer worden ze gedwongen om samen een paar dagen te verblijven in een berghut. Ver van de rest van de wereld onthult Monika aan Andreas haar ware beweegredenen en vertelt ze over haar leven in München en in het turbulente Berlijn van de vroege jaren dertig; over haar huwelijk met haar grote liefde, de reizen die ze maakte en haar werk op een school in Beieren, totdat de opkomst van de nazi's en het groeiende antisemitisme aan dat alles een einde maakten.

Ineens kende de hele wereld die twee letters: IS, een terreurgroep die midden in de chaos van Irak en Syrië de Islamitische Staat uitriep. Het Westen was overdonderd en greep in, maar IS laat zich niet makkelijk verslaan. Wie zijn deze mensen precies, wat willen ze en waar komen ze vandaan? 0In dit boek neemt de ervaren oorlogsverslaggever Hans Jaap Melissen de lezer mee op reis; naar het New York van net na 9/11 en de oorlogen in Irak en Syrië. Als een van de weinige journalisten gaat Melissen nog naar plekken waar een aantal van zijn collega's is ontvoerd en later onthoofd. 0Melissen laat zien hoe een vruchtbare voedingsbodem kon ontstaan van waaruit een onbeduidend groepje rebellen uitgroeide tot een van de rijkste en meest meedogenloze terreurbewegingen ooit. Een beweging die handig gebruik maakt van sociale media en een grote aantrekkingskracht uitoefent op buitenlandse jihadisten, ook uit Nederland. Inmiddels probeert een internationale coalitie onder leiding van de Verenigde Staten IS te verslaan. Maar gaat dat lukken? Of zal IS altijd weer van zich laten horen met aanslagen, waar ook ter wereld?

Persoonlijke verhalen en portretten van dak- en thuislozen, die vertellen waarom ze op straat zijn beland.

Lanzmann praat zonder franje met overlevenden, slachtoffers, beulen, bewakers, ooggetuigen. Een heroïsche poging het onmenselijke te vermenselijken

Gedetailleerde beschrijving van de loopbaan van de Amerikaanse president Kennedy (1917-1963) en van de moord in Dallas door Lee Harvey Oswald.

Triest verslag uit Soedan over hoe het regeringsleger met mensen omspringt, gevangenschap, marteling

Ervaringen tijdens de strijd in de loopgraven aan het Westelijk front.

Verslag van een zeven jaar durende zoektocht naar gegevens om het leven van de joodse gemeenschap in het Poolse stadje Konin te reconstrueren, voordat daar door de nazi's in 1941 een einde aan werd gemaakt.

Increasing oil prices . . . America struggling with a recession . . . European nations at risk of defaulting on their loans . . . A possible global financial crisis. It happened before, in the 1970s.

Oil Kings is the story of how oil came to dominate U.S. domestic and international affairs. As Richard Nixon fought off Watergate inquiries in 1973, the U.S. economy reacted to an oil shortage initiated by Arab nations in retaliation for American support of Israel in the Arab- Israeli war. The price of oil skyrocketed, causing serious inflation. One man the U.S. could rely on in the Middle East was the Shah of Iran, a loyal ally whose grand ambitions had made him a leading customer for American weapons. Iran sold the U.S. oil; the U.S. sold Iran missiles and fighter jets. But the Shah’s economy depended almost entirely on oil, and the U.S. economy could not tolerate annual double-digit increases in the price of this essential commodity. European economies were hit even harder by the soaring oil prices, and several NATO allies were at risk of default on their debt.

In 1976, with the U.S. economy in peril, President Gerald Ford, locked in a tight election race, decided he had to find a country that would sell oil to the U.S. more cheaply and break the OPEC monopoly, which the Shah refused to do. On the advice of Treasury Secretary William Simon and against the advice of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Ford made a deal to sell advanced weaponry to the Saudis in exchange for a modest price hike on oil.

Ford lost the election, but the deal had lasting consequences. The Shah’s economy was destabilized, and disaffected elements in Iran mobilized to overthrow him. The U.S. had embarked on a long relationship with the autocratic Saudi kingdom that continues to this day.

Andrew Scott Cooper draws on newly declassified documents and interviews with some key figures of the time to show how Nixon, Ford, Kissinger, the CIA, and the State and Treasury departments—as well as the Shah and the Saudi royal family— maneuvered to control events in the Middle East. He details the secret U.S.-Saudi plan to circumvent OPEC that destabilized the Shah. He reveals how close the U.S. came to sending troops into the Persian Gulf to break the Arab oil embargo. The Oil Kings provides solid evidence that U.S. officials ignored warning signs of a potential hostage crisis in Iran. It discloses that U.S. officials offered to sell nuclear power and nuclear fuel to the Shah. And it shows how the Ford Administration barely averted a European debt crisis that could have triggered a financial catastrophe in the U.S. Brilliantly reported and filled with astonishing details about some of the key figures of the time, The Oil Kings is the history of an era that we thought we knew, an era whose momentous reverberations still influence events at home and abroad today.

An international manager has a tough job, coping with three different cultures: the culture of origin, the culture in which he or she is working and the culture of the organization. Fons Trompenaars has been studing the effects of culture on management for many years and he profoundly disagrees with the widely held theory that internationalization will create a common, worldwide culture. In this challenging book he claims that there is not, and can never be 'one best way of managing and organizing' regardless of where the company is located. RIDING THE WAVES OF CULTURE provides cultural insights into the global v. local dilema, and most importantly, gives readers a better understanding of their own culture and cultural differences in general Rich in case studies and anecdotes, the book is based upon the author's own experience plus field studies in 30 companies in a total of 50 countries, including Royal Dutch Airlines, KLM, Volvo, Lotus, Kodak, AT&T, Royal Dutch Shell, ICI, Heineken, Mars and Glaxo.

This volume, simultaneously published in Russian and English, demonstrates that an American and a Russian of different views can engage in civil and informative discussion of their different and common problems. In the summer of 1987, Galbraith and Menshikov, of World Marxist Review met for 10 days in Vermont. This volume records their discussions, which cover the history and development of the socialist economy and of capitalism, the economic problems of the two systems, the impact of technological revolution on them, and glasnost and Reaganomics. Other topics include: the military spinoffs of space research, arms sales to the Third World, Keynesian follies, cultural and diplomatic cooperation, human rights, and the dangers of a nuclear holocaust. These discussions point the way toward more peaceful and enlightened relations between the two countries. ISBN 0-395-47316-0: $17.95.

This collection of essays by some of the world's leading authorities on Islamic social history focuses on the juridical and cultural oppression of non-Muslims in Islamic societies. 

From the Publisher: Thomas L. Friedman's No. 1 bestseller The World Is Flat has helped millions of readers to see the world, and globalization, in a new way. With his latest book, Friedman brings a fresh and provocative outlook to another pressing issue: the interlinked crises of destabilizing climate change and rising competition for energy-both of which could poison our world if we do not act quickly and collectively. His argument speaks to the 2008 presidential election-and to all of us who are concerned about the state of America and its role in the global future. "Green is the new red, white, and blue," Friedman declares, and proposes that an ambitious national strategy-which he calls geo-greenism-is not only what we need to save the planet from overheating, it is what we need to make America healthier, richer, more innovative, more productive, and more secure in the coming E C E-the Energy-Climate Era. Green-oriented practices and technologies, established at scale everywhere from Washington to Wal-Mart, are both the only way to mitigate climate change and the best way for America to "get its groove back"-to "reknit America at home, reconnect America abroad, retool America for the new century, and restore America to its natural place in the global order." As in The World Is Flat and his previous bestseller The Lexus and the Olive Tree, he explains the future we are facing through an illuminating account of recent events. He explains how 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and the flattening of the world by the Internet, which has brought three billion new consumers onto the world stage, have combined to bring the climate and energy issues to main street. But they have not really gone down main street yet. Indeed, it is Friedman's view that we are not really having the green revolution that the press keeps touting, or, if we are, "it is the only revolution in history," he says, "where no one got hurt." No, to the contrary, argues Friedman, we're actually having a "green party." We have not even begun to be serious yet about the speed and scale of change that is required. With all that in mind, Friedman lays out his argument that if we are going to avoid the worst disruptions looming before us as we enter the Energy-Climate Era, we are going to need several disruptive breakthroughs in the clean-technology sphere-disruptive in the transformational sense. He explores what enabled the disruptive breakthroughs that created the IT (Information Technology) revolution that flattened the world in information terms and then shows how a similar set of disruptive breakthroughs could spark the ET-Energy Technology-revolution. Time and again, though, Friedman shows why it is both necessary and desirous for America to lead this revolution-with the first green president, a green New Deal, and spurred by the Greenest Generation-and why meeting the green challenge of the twenty-first century could transform America every bit as meeting the Red challenge, that of Communism, did in the twentieth century. Hot, Flat, and Crowded is classic Thomas L Friedman-fearless, incisive, forward-looking, and rich in surprising common sense about the world we live in today.

The End of Iraq, definitive, tough-minded, clear-eyed, describes America's failed strategy toward that country and what must be done now. The United States invaded Iraq with grand ambitions to bring it democracy and thereby transform the Middle East. Instead, Iraq has disintegrated into three constituent components: a pro-western Kurdistan in the north, an Iran-dominated Shiite entity in the south, and a chaotic Sunni Arab region in the center. The country is plagued by insurgency and is in the opening phases of a potentially catastrophic civil war. George W. Bush broke up Iraq when he ordered its invasion in 2003. The United States not only removed Saddam Hussein, it also smashed and later dissolved the institutions by which Iraq's Sunni Arab minority ruled the country: its army, its security services, and the Baath Party. With these institutions gone and irreplaceable, the basis of an Iraqi state has disappeared. The End of Iraq describes the administration's strategic miscalculations behind the war as well as the blunders of the American occupation. There was the failure to understand the intensity of the ethnic and religious divisions in Iraq. This was followed by incoherent and inconsistent strategies for governing, the failure to spend money for reconstruction, the misguided effort to create a national army and police, and then the turning over of the country's management to Republican political loyalists rather than qualified professionals. As a matter of morality, Galbraith writes, the Kurds of Iraq are no less entitled to independence than are Lithuanians, Croatians, orPalestinians. And if the country's majority Shiites want to run their own affairs, or even have their own state, on what democratic principle should they be denied? If the price of a unified Iraq is another dictatorship, Galbraith writes in The End of Iraq, it is too high a price to pay. The United States must focus now, not on preserving or forging a unified Iraq, but on avoiding a spreading and increasingly dangerous and deadly civil war. It must accept the reality of Iraq's breakup and work with Iraq's Shiites, Kurds, and Sunni Arabs to strengthen the already semi-independent regions. If they are properly constituted, these regions can provide security, though not all will be democratic. There is no easy exit from Iraq for America. We have to relinquish our present strategy -- trying to build national institutions when there is in fact no nation. That effort is doomed, Galbraith argues, and it will only leave the United States with an open-ended commitment in circumstances of uncontrollable turmoil. Peter Galbraith has been in Iraq many times over the last twenty-one years during historic turning points for the country: the Iran-Iraq War, the Kurdish genocide, the 1991 uprising, the immediate aftermath of the 2003 war, and the writing of Iraq's constitutions. In The End of Iraq, he offers many firsthand observations of the men who are now Iraq's leaders. He draws on his nearly two decades of involvement in Iraq policy working for the U.S. government to appraise what has occurred and what will happen. The End of Iraq is the definitive account of this war and itsramifications.

The global war on terror is not just a military conflict but a war of ideas. Indeed it is in some respects primarily an ideological struggle. Yet it is a war we cannot win without a broader understanding of al-Qaeda's goals and motives.

In a little over two centuries, America has grown from a regional power to a superpower, and to what is today called a hyperpower. But can America retain its position as the world’s dominant power, or has it already begun to decline?

Historians have debated the rise and fall of empires for centuries. To date, however, no one has studied the far rarer phenomenon of hyperpowers—those few societies that amassed such extraordinary military and economic might that they essentially dominated the world.
Now, in this sweeping history of globally dominant empires, bestselling author Amy Chua explains how hyperpowers rise and why they fall. In a series of brilliantly focused chapters, Chua examines history’s hyperpowers—Persia, Rome, Tang China, the Mongols, the Dutch, the British, and the United States—and reveals the reasons behind their success, as well as the roots of their ultimate demise.
Chua’s unprecedented study reveals a fascinating historical pattern. For all their differences, she argues, every one of these world-dominant powers was, at least by the standards of its time, extraordinarily pluralistic and tolerant. Each one succeeded by harnessing the skills and energies of individuals from very different backgrounds, and by attracting and exploiting highly talented groups that were excluded in other societies. Thus Rome allowed Africans, Spaniards, and Gauls alike to rise to the highest echelons of power, while the “barbarian” Mongols conquered their vast domains only because they practiced an ethnic and religious tolerance unheard of in their time. In contrast,

Nazi Germany and imperial Japan, while wielding great power, failed to attain global dominance as a direct result of their racial and religious intolerance.
But Chua also uncovers a great historical irony: in virtually every instance, multicultural tolerance eventually sowed the seeds of decline, and diversity became a liability, triggering conflict, hatred, and violence.
The United States is the quintessential example of a power that rose to global dominance through tolerance and diversity. The secret to America’s success has always been its unsurpassed ability to attract enterprising immigrants. Today, however, concerns about outsourcing and uncontrolled illegal immigration are producing a backlash against our tradition of cultural openness. Has America finally reached a “tipping point”? Have we gone too far in the direction of diversity and tolerance to maintain cohesion and unity? Will we be overtaken by rising powers like China, the EU or even India?
Chua shows why American power may have already exceeded its limits and why it may be in our interest to retreat from our go-it-alone approach and promote a new multilateralism in both domestic and foreign affairs.

A star White House journalist provides a gripping look inside the meeting rooms, the in-boxes, and the super-sharp minds of the pedigreed propeller heads who attempted to guide President Obama out of a global economic crisis.

Each day, Donald Boudreaux, professor of economics at George Mason University, writes a letter to the editor of a major American publication. Often, he writes in response to an absurdity offered up by a columnist or politician, or an eye-catching factoid misleadingly taken out of context. This collection, comprised of one hundred of Boudreaux's best letters, provides intelligent, witty rejoinders to questions like these:

- Are taxes "really just prices"? (New York Times)
- Does the Tea Party suffer from a "fatuous infatuation" with the Constitution? (Washington Post)
- Is it "obvious" that "if there are fewer guns, there are fewer shootings and fewer funerals" (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
- Has "slowing population growth" proven to be "critical to long-term economic growth"? (Wall Street Journal)

Without swearing allegiance to any party or ideology, Boudreaux takes aim at pundits and politicos on the left, right, and everywhere between. He tackles issues ranging from "lookism" in the office and the futility of border walls to naive faith in alternative energy and the all-too-common tendency to trust a fallible and ever-expanding government.

Half-truths and Hypocrites won't change the deeply held convictions of readers. But it will entertain them, enlighten them, and sharpen their eye for shaky facts, faulty reasoning, and intellectual dishonesty--all of which are threats to a free, prosperous country.

Persoonlijke visie van de Nederlandse historicus op het verval en de ondergang van het West-Romeinse rijk in de vijfde eeuw, waarbij hij vergelijkingen maakt met de echte en vermeende bedreigingen van de huidige westerse wereld.

In de vroege zeventiende eeuw bekeerde Jan Janszoon uit Haarlem zich tijdens zijn Noord-Afrikaanse ballingschap tot de islam. Hij werkte zich met gemak op tot admiraal van de Barbarijse piratenstad Salé in Marokko. Daarmee toonde hij het menselijke vermogen om zich met een nieuwe cultuur te vereenzelvigen, zó dat hij deze hartstochtelijk verdedigde en er een dominante kracht bleek te kunnen zijn. Wellicht wordt identiteit meer door omstandigheden en toeval bepaald, dan door geboorte en nationaliteit. Reizigers van een nieuwe tijd is een ode aan grensgangers zoals Jan Janszoon, die onderdeel werden van de Marokkaanse cultuur en ons nieuwe vormen van burgerschap tonen. Wat vertellen deze historische reizigers ons over de tijd waarin we leven?

Onderzoek naar het joodse aspect in het werk van 19 bekende joodse kunstenaars uit de 19e en 20e eeuw. Eeuwenlang weerhield het tweede van de tien geboden kunstenaars uit de Joodse gemeenschap ervan mensen af te beelden. En de enkeling die het toch deed, bleef anoniem. Net als de overige Joodse kunstenaars, die vooral religieuze attributen en boekrollen vervaardigden, in de anonimiteit, want het ging er vooral om God te eren. Bovendien was de maatschappelijke positie van Joden in de diaspora (afgezonderd en buitengesloten, vaak opgesloten in ghetto's) er niet naar bekend te worden buiten de eigen kring.

Dankzij de Franse revolutie is hier verandering in gekomen. De Joden werden vrij, kregen gelijke rechten en begonnen deel te nemen in deel te nemen in de cultuur van de landen waar ze woonden. Verschillende toonaangevende kunstenaars zijn inmiddels uit hun midden opgestaan.

Kunsthistorica Ruth le Febvre-Feld bespreekt in dit boek dat betrekkelijk nieuwe verschijnsel: de Joodse kunstenaar of architect, die bekend is en beroemd en deel uitmaakt van het culturele leven. Aan de orde komen grote namen als Chagall, Isra en Libeskind maar ook een aantal toonaangevende Isra sche kunstenaars, inclusief de Bauhaus-architecten van Tel Aviv en de bewoners van het kunstenaarsdorp Ein Hod.

Neerslag van een reis waarin de auteur het spoor volgt van de legendarische schrijver John Steinbeck, die begin jaren zestig samen met zijn poedel Charley een reis maakte door de Verenigde Staten. Zijn tocht beschreef hij in de klassieker Reizen met Charley. Geert Mak maakte diezelfde reis, maar dan precies vijftig jaar later. In Reizen zonder John beschrijft Mak de Amerikaanse geschiedenis zoals hij dat deed met de Europese geschiedenis in In Europa: een combinatie vaneen reis door het continent en een reis door de tijd. Tegelijk onderzoekt hij, al kijkend en pratend met wie hij maar ontmoet, hoe Amerika de afgelopen halve eeuw veranderd is. Amerika was altijd al een 'geheime liefde' voor Geert Mak. Bijna ieder jaar reisde hij er rond. Het land hield hem telkens een spiegel voor waarin hij Europa en Nederland met een nieuwe blik kon bekijken. Nu richt hij zijn blik, eindelijk, op Amerika zelf.

Op 15 december 2017 wordt in de Deventer Schouwburg de eerste editie van de Jan Terlouw-lezing gehouden. Doel van de jaarlijkse lezing is om in navolging van het gedachtegoed van Jan Terlouw een dialoog tussen generaties tot stand te brengen en de toehoorders aan te zetten om in actie te komen voor een duurzame wereld. Jan Terlouw (1931) zelf opent de lezingenreeks. Hij bespreekt de tegenstrijdige trends van globalisering en onze omgang met de natuur, en de onzekerheid over de toekomst die Nederlanders vandaag de dag voelen, ondanks het goede leven en de tevredenheid over hun bestaan. Duospreker is Laura Faber (1986), kleindochter van Jan Terlouw en psycholoog. Zij stelt dat klimaatveranderingen - grotendeels veroorzaakt door de mens zelf - grote delen van de aarde onbewoonbaar maken en daarmee steeds grotere vluchtelingenstromen op gang zullen brengen.0'We kunnen niet langer wachten' bevat de teksten van de lezingen.

Kritisch commentaar op het standaardwerk van Lou de Jong over de Tweede Wereldoorlog, waarbij de goed-fout-tegenstelling wordt genuanceerd.